TET is a really big deal here in Vietnam. In the absence of a ton of other holidays like we have in the west, the Vietnamese seem to save all of their partying for this one holiday and almost the entire country grinds to a halt. Everyone other than police officers and other essential services don't work and this can be a bit problematic when you want to do something like get something to eat and almost all of the restaurants are closed.
I can understand why they do it because it's a really great time for families to get together once a year and spend a lot of time around one another. During that time of year the area that I live in is kind of like a ghost town because our area is primarily foreigners who do not celebrate TET. Very few Vietnamese people actually live here, they just work here. Since they are not going to work, there isn't much activity in our area.
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There are lots of parties during lunar new year but mostly they are just families making their own parties that come complete with very overpowered karaoke machines. This is one benefit of living in an area with very few Vietnamese families because I don't think anyone who isn't Vietnamese actually likes these things and the noise pollution if you go to a part of town that is having these parties is just crazy. It would be illegal in most of the countries around the world because it is seriously loud. You can hear it from blocks away sort of loud.
Since most people don't work during TET, it can be very difficult to obtain food and the delivery system, called Grab in this country and is basically the same thing as Uber Eats, almost completely shuts down. I tried the other night to get something delivered from one of the few places in my list that was actually open and the app would just stall because there were no available drivers at all to be found. I eventually relented and walked to one of the only minimarts that stays open during this time of year only to discover rather barren shelves. I should have seen this coming because I have been through it so many times that the logistics of filling up the shelves was also going to shut down but once again, and this is my 5th year, I failed to prepare for it accordingly. Let's just say I ended up eating a lot of instant noodles.
There is an Irish pub near my house that pays his staff a premium to work, and only if they choose to, during TET. He has 5 items on his food menu and by the end of the first week, they ran out of everything because they could no longer obtain the ingredients for these dishes.
I will say this: If I owned a business in Vietnam I would make a point of being open during TET regardless of the cost because the 10% or so of restaurants and bars that were open during TET were absolutely slammed all the time. Restaurants that I normally see completely devoid of customers now had lines of people waiting to get in. To me it seems like a wonderful time to make a ton of money and also get people to try your restaurant.
So that part of it isn't great but one thing that is really great is something that I, and everyone else that lives in the "reverse Chinatown" of Da Nang, complains about all the time: Construction noise. All the construction workers have had the past 2 weeks off of work and it has been just glorious to not have constant banging, cutting, drilling, and backing up of cement trucks from dawn till dusk every single damn day.
On monday that will all resume and while I will be happy to have access to all the foodstuffs that I like so much again, it will come at the cost of peace and quiet. I am sure the workers will return with new vigor and make even more noise than they normally do.
Thankfully, the build nearest my condo appears to be in the last 10% of construction, so that will be over soon. The way they were working before TET it appeared as though there was some sort of idea that they were going to finish before the Tet holiday. I'm sure once they finish that one they will immediately get to work on the plot of land right next to it almost immediately. It's just kind of an assured thing here in Da Nang: If there is an open plot of land someone is going to build a condo/hotel on it until there is no land left. Then, they tear down older structures and build something taller. I think the time will come in the future when they regret this decision because the amount of places to stay is going to be far higher than the amount of people that actually want to stay in them.
So the peace and quiet has been nice and that is why Tet is one of my favorite times of year and if it comes at the cost of me not being able to get a burger and fries, I'll take that trade.
Maybe next year I will actually prepare for the holiday and stock up my fridge with food I actually want to eat but given the fact that i've failed to do this for 5 years straight, I doubt it!
I share your sentiments as far as TET is concerned for the most part. It is really the only quiet that we get all year and I will always celebrate that because it is so rare here or anywhere in Vietnam for that matter. I love living in Vietnam because of the economics but it is by far the loudest country I have ever set foot in. It's just never-ending. Where I live the cement drills are back in full force and two days ago I saw some trucks unloading a bunch of crap onto a nearby empty plot of land. here we go again!
Constant noise is part and parcel of living in this otherwise lovely country.
This is crazy because restaurants should be printing money during this period and if the majority are closed even more reason to remain open. Running out of supplies is no real excuse and businesses should plan ahead better having extra storage or another plan. I hate as a consumer when normality is disrupted over even a few days so I would not enjoy this festive break in Vietnam. The less noise with no building taking place is the bonus and a definite plus.
I spoke to one of the business owners that was open during the entire time and his place was absolutely slamming busy and he told me that it is his biggest earning time of year and he offers big incentives to his staff to change their vacation plans to work instead. Then afterwards he allows them double that amount of time off that they would normally get for TET. He says the people that decide to do this are normally the people who have small families but for the ones with big families they are basically obligated to go whether they want to or not. But I totally agree with you about how there is no excuse for places running out of things. They know this is coming and should prepare accordingly.
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